(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of electrical equipment for vehicles, such as aircraft. The present invention relates to a device for feeding electricity to equipment, such as seats fastened to the vehicle, and the invention also relates to an aircraft including such a device.
(2) Description of Related Art
It is becoming more and more frequent for various types of electrical function to be provided on vehicle seats, such as a safety function involving an airbag, for example, or a comfort function, e.g. performed by heater means, or an information function, e.g. to detect the presence of a passenger.
In the particular circumstance of aircraft, cabin reconfiguration can be frequent, thus requiring one or more pieces of equipment to be shifted, turned, added, or removed, together with the various elements with which the pieces of equipment may be connected or associated.
By way of example, airbag-fitted seats are presently in use in particular in rotary wing aircraft, however they are generally electrically independent, having a battery for electrically powering the airbag and an electronic unit for causing the airbag to be deployed. Under such circumstances, the extra weight added to the seat may be considerable, thereby making the seat difficult to move.
Furthermore, because of this electrical and electronic independence, there is a considerable risk of an airbag being deployed in untimely manner whenever the seat is being handled, and as a result additional precautions need to be taken.
Finally, the electrical and electronic functions incorporated in a seat, such as an airbag, are sometimes critical, i.e. they require electronic systems that are complex and sensitive to any external disturbance, and they often present a lifetime that is short. The associated maintenance costs can thus be considerable.
Given the above-mentioned risks and constraints, it is common practice at present to avoid incorporating such electrical functions in aircraft seats.
In contrast, it is common practice to use numerous electrical and electronic functions in motor vehicles, in particular in the front seats of such vehicles. Under such circumstances, the seats are placed in a single and permanent position so they are generally fed with electricity by a bundle of electric wires extending from the floor and fitted with a connector. The bundle is manually connected to a complementary connector of the seat in the factory during assembly of the vehicle, and no particular constraint is therefore associated with incorporating the bundle and the connector in the floor of the vehicle, other than accommodating the various potential movements of the seat. Thus, during the lifetime of the vehicle, those seats are never removed or placed somewhere else (except under exceptional circumstances of repair in the garage), so the seat zones are not configurable.
Certain motor vehicles, of the multipurpose vehicle (MPV) type, have a rear zone in which the seats are easily removed, shifted, and positioned in a variety of configurations. However, under such circumstances, those seats do not have any information or electrical power functions, since their modularity is not compatible with the presence of an electrical wiring bundle on the floor.
For electrical connections that are present in vehicles of any type, it is also known in conventional manner to make use of connections of the male/female contact type, for mutual co-operation. Although the operation of such connections is reliable in an environment that is clean, they are nevertheless very sensitive to environmental pollution (dust, mud, . . . ) that can disturb electrical connections, and give rise to short circuits and to mechanical damage, depending on the nature of the items that infiltrate between the contacts.
Documents US 2007/0164156 and US 2005/0211835 present an electrical bus system that runs along the total length of an airplane cabin in order to feed electricity to the passenger seats installed in the cabin. The bus has one or more conductor lines over its entire length suitable for connection to data and electrical power sources. The bus is in the form of a rail positioned on top of the floor close to the seat-fastening rail and it is open on one of its sides along its entire length. A connector connected electrically to each seat or to each row of seats can then be connected to the bus through that opening at any point along the cabin of the airplane in order to establish electrical connection between the seats and the various data and power sources. The conductor lines inside the bus are protected from the external environment, in particular by lips of flexible material covering the open side of the bus, thereby providing sealing while also allowing the connectors that are connected to seats to be inserted. Once all of the seats have been put into position and connected to the bus, zones of the bus remain accessible, in particular close to the stands of the seats. The stands, also known as legs, constitute the bottom portions of the equipment, and serve to fasten the equipment to the floor. The covering of the seat fastener rails then needs to be reorganized so as to be adapted to the positions of the seats and cover the zones close to the seat stands and to the connectors connected to the bus so as to prevent access to the feed rail.
Document US 2006/0038070 is also known and describes a cabling system and method for supplying electrical power and/or communications data in a vehicle cabin, and more particularly to seats installed in the cabin. A plurality of lower connectors are fastened in panels of the cabin floor and are connected to an electrical wiring bundle of the vehicle. Top connectors, e.g. connected to the electronics units of seats, can then be connected to the bottom connectors so as to connect the seats electrically to the electrical wiring bundle of the vehicle.
Furthermore, document US 2006/0097109 describes a cover device for covering the seat fastening rails between the rows of seats installed in the cabin of a vehicle, e.g. an airplane. That cover device is adjustable so as to be adapted to the space available between the rows of seats. The device also has an electrical wiring bundle and connectors for electrically connecting each seat to the vehicle.
Document U.S. Pat. No. 4,763,360 is known and describes a system for making electrical connections to vehicle seats by using the fastening rails of those seats. A fastening rail includes one or two conductor strips fastened along the rail and separated from the rail by insulation. When a seat is fastened to the rail, a device incorporated in the seat enables an electrical connection to be established between the seat and those conductor strips, thus enabling data and/or electrical power to be transmitted.
Finally, document US 2005/0258676 describes a system and a method for distributing electrical data and/or power signals to equipment in a vehicle cabin, and more particularly to seats installed in the cabin. An electrical bus runs under the floor of the cabin and a seat may be connected to the electrical bus at any point within the vehicle cabin, by means of a connector.
It should be observed that the technological background contains document EP 1 137 109 that describes an electricity outlet for an airplane fitted with a safety device that prevents any connection without the presence of a plate that has previously been put into position on the female outlet in order to unlock the safety system and insert the male plug.
It can be understood that the increase in various types of electrical function incorporated in vehicle equipment, and in particular in seats, is not necessarily compatible with the modularity that is nowadays required for the cabins of such vehicles.
Reconfiguring an aircraft cabin generally needs to comply with time constraints so as to minimize the length of time the vehicle is unavailable. When reconfiguring a cabin fitted with equipment having electrical functions, it is therefore difficult to envisage needing to modify the installation of all of the electrical wiring bundles for feeding the equipment.
Furthermore, the top surface of the cabin floor, i.e. the surface facing the equipment, must avoid hindering either the loading of loads or the movement of people. It is also appropriate to avoid having electrical elements that might be damaged by the passage of people or loads.
Finally, the sometimes-aggressive external environment in which such vehicles may operate constitutes an additional constraint that needs to be taken into account, in particular in the presence of electrical functions.